Good educational material?

[fenderbender4]

I'm looking at pickup up either instructional books or DVD's to improve my playing. The two big things for me right now are:

1. speed and accuracy

2. Starting to get into chord substitutions, improvising, and voice accompaniment (I guess primarily Jazz and Blues based).

Any suggestions? Thanks.

[derekd]

First topic there are tons of vids on, as so many people think speed is cool or to be greatly admired. John Petrucci's instructional vid seems to get the most kudos in this area. Someone else may have other suggestions.

Second one is a poser. I have probably 30 jazz instructional vids, and for the life of me cannot think of one that breaks down chordal subs. Pat Martino's vids discuss his particular slant of substitution and improvisation. If you are not aware, a simplistic explaination is he minorizes very chord change.

Virtually every jazz vid I have addresses improvisation in one way or another, pretty broad topic. Perhaps you could narrow down what you are looking for. Vocalizing is pretty simple, as you just sing what you are playing to get it in your ear. You can sing the tones as they relate to the scale/chord ex: 1, b3, 5, b7, etc. or just scat like John Pizzarelli is doing here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2TSFtppNSE

Mel Bay carries a laminated wall chart that Cory Christainsen made on subs. It has all the diatonic subs listed, and tritones. There is also Creative Chord Substitutions for Jazz Guitar.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Masters-Creative-Substitution-Guitar/dp/0757923011

Finally, there are a number of websites that discuss chord subs. There is a Belgium jazz guitar site, http://www.jazzguitar.be/ That has some cool lesson pages, including one on subs. Hope this helps.

[fenderbender4]

I'll definitely check out the John Petrucci vid. Anyone else?

[A-Bone]

You might also check out the DVDs created by TGP's own Tomo Fujita, such as "Accelerate Your Guitar Playing" and the like. In addition to the quality material, Tomo posts here frequently enough that you can get specific questions answered from the man himself.

[Tomo]

You might also check out the DVDs created by TGP's own Tomo Fujita, such as "Accelerate Your Guitar Playing" and the like. In addition to the quality material, Tomo posts here frequently enough that you can get specific questions answered from the man himself.

Thank you so much for your kind words. I have TGP Hot Set (SP dvd & TMC dvd... comes with lesson material=2-3 years worth).

Tomo